How do you analyze the role of turn-taking, repair, and feedback in different types of interactions?

1 What is conversational analysis?

Conversational analysis is a method of studying how people organize and manage their talk-in-interaction. It focuses on the sequential and structural aspects of conversation, such as how speakers take turns, initiate and close topics, make requests, offer apologies, and so on. CA aims to uncover the implicit rules and norms that guide conversational behavior, and how they vary across cultures, settings, and purposes.

2 What is interactional sociolinguistics?

Interactional sociolinguistics is a method of studying how people use language to construct and negotiate their identities, roles, and relationships in interaction. It focuses on the contextual and interpretive aspects of conversation, such as how speakers use linguistic features (such as accent, register, code-switching, etc.) to signal and interpret social meanings, such as politeness, power, solidarity, and so on. IS aims to explore the diversity and complexity of language use in relation to social and cultural factors.

3 How to analyze turn-taking?

Turn-taking is the process of exchanging speaking rights and obligations in interaction, requiring both the allocation and the distribution of turns, as well as the transitions between them. To analyze turn-taking, one needs to consider turn-constructional units (TCUs), which are the units of talk that speakers use to construct their turns, such as words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. Additionally, you must be aware of the techniques speakers use to indicate who should speak next, such as eye gaze, intonation, gesture, or explicit markers (such as question words or names). Lastly, you need to understand the system of rules and principles that govern how speakers coordinate their turns – such as the current speaker selects next (CSN), next speaker self-selects (NSS), or current speaker continues (CSC).

4 How to analyze repair?

Repair is the process of dealing with problems or errors in interaction, such as misunderstandings, mishearings, slips of the tongue, or gaps in knowledge. This process involves identifying and resolving the problem, as well as the interactional consequences of the repair. To analyze repair, you need to consider the initiation of the repair (e.g. a repetition, a clarification request, or a correction), its position relative to the problem source (same turn, next turn, or third turn), and the operation that resolves the problem (e.g. a substitution, a deletion, an insertion, or an explanation).

5 How to analyze feedback?

Feedback is the process of providing or eliciting information or evaluation in interaction, such as confirmation, agreement, disagreement, assessment, or request. This involves both the production and reception of feedback, as well as its interactional functions and effects. When analyzing feedback, it's important to pay attention to the type of information or evaluation it conveys (positive, negative, neutral, mixed), the form of expression used (verbal, non-verbal, paralinguistic), and the alignment with the prior speaker's action (convergent, divergent, ambivalent).

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?